Administration of large, multi-server, computing environments is a field of growing interest as the number and size of large, multi-server computing environments grows. The field of multi-server system administration and management focuses on maintaining the physical operation of a multitude of computer systems, often referred to as nodes, connected in a network. This task includes a number of functions, including adding, modifying and removing nodes, users, tools, and roles; defining groups of nodes; authorizing users to perform operations on nodes; installing, maintaining and configuring hardware; installing and upgrading operating system and application software; and applying software patches, among other functions.
Several powerful software applications to assist and centralize the management of large, multi-server, computing environments have been developed in the field. Generally these applications have included a single, large multi-server management application running on a single centrally located management server operated by one or more system administrators. In only a few implementations have these applications included separate management agent applications running on each of the nodes in the multi-server computing environment.
With the rise of large Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) and Application Service Providers (“ASPs”) the number of computer systems operating together in a network requiring administration and management has grown exponentially. As the size of the multi-server computing environment in which the single, large multi-server management applications running on single centrally located management servers grows, the more demands are made on the various functions of the multi-server management application, and the more likely is a failure of any one component of the multi-server management application and, thus, of the multi-server management application itself. In a very large multi-server computing environment such as that for an ISP or an ASP, a failure of the multi-server management application can be catastrophic. Ensuring the maximum availability of the functionality of the multi-server management application is of great concern to system administrators today. A large, single multi-server management application running on a single centrally located management server is thus an unacceptable single point of failure in a large multi-server computing environment.